Alt-tab not working in Citrix session

[Movie Man]

I remote into my work PC (Win7 machine) using Citrix Receiver 11.8.2 for Mac OS X (Yosemite). I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014).

 

I'm trying to get the Alt-tab functionality to work inside my Citrix session, to switch between applications within Citrix. Currently, option-tab is simply unresponsive. The only keyboard shortcut that works is Command-Option-fn-tab, which is extremely cumbersome.

 

My keyboard preferences are configured to Send Control Character using Control, and Send Alt Character using Command (left). Despite this, the "Alt" functionality does not work - when I press command (left) + tab, there's no response (only the tab function works).

 

I would really appreciate a solution to this dilemma. Thanks.

 

(Note: I upgraded my Citrix receiver to 11.9.0, but I still have the same issue. Alt-tab is unresponsive).

[Mike Golding]

Is there an update on this issue from anyone? I have the exact same problem, have done for a long time and switched to a windows machine because of it (there the issue does not exist) but now I have to run Citrix from a Mac.

 

As the original post describes, Alt Tab (on first press) sends only a tab, i.e. the alt part of the combination is ignored, keep the alt key pressed and press tab again and it works. fn+alt+cmd+tab works every time.

 

The result is that os sending a random tab every time alt-tab is used which is probably thousands of times a day. In some places that random tab does nothing but in others it is a nightmare.

 

Version: 12.1.0 (339228)

Using and mac os.

[Mark Chitty]

~tl;dr Use OSX Keyboard Shortcut System Preferences to map option-tab to the Citrix Viewer Alt-Tab menu option.

 

The [Tab] before [Alt]-[Tab] issue was super bugging me too - ruining code I was writing in my Citrix session, etc. Happily I've figured out a reliable workaround, thanks to this Citrix support article. You can use the standard Mac keyboard shortcut customisations to map alt-tab* on your Mac keyboard to send the Alt-Tab key-combo to Citrix Viewer.

 

My CitrixViewer (ver 20.02.0.5) keyboard preferences look like this:

Crucially, in the CitrixViewer application menus, there are options to send certain keys and key combos, including the apocryphal Alt-Tab:

 

 

This means in OS-X's System Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts settings you can map this menu command to a keyboard combo of your choice, the obvious one being ⌥-Tab:

 

The two gotchas I found were:

1. Finding the right application to reference in the Shortcuts application list. The Citrix support article I mentioned above walks you through this.
2. I had to restart the CitrixViewer app to get it to recognise the new keyboard -> menu mappings. Other Mac apps I've done custom keyboard mappings for haven't required a restart, so this made me think my attempts were failing at first, but after restarting the app the shortcuts appeared in the menus and worked! \o/

 

* Alt-tab or option-tab? Everyone seems to call this key (⌥) the Option key, but it's labelled 'alt' on my UK keyboard.

[Movie Man]

Bump! I'd really appreciate a solution to this. Lack of Alt-tab is really frustrating.

[Thomas Reinberger]

Just press Alt+Cmd+Tab and you're fine to go.

[Movie Man]

Alt+Cmd+Tab does not work for me. As I mentioned in my original post, the only keystroke combination which works is Cmd+Option+Fn+Tab - this is ridiculous. Is there a way to fix this?

[Casper van der Ham]

Alt+Cmd+Tab works for me, though I would prefer to change this command to an easier combination. Three keys is too much. Anyone an idea how to change the combination?

[Abishek Narayanan]

Finally the solution is here. I have macbook pro OS X Yosemite on it.

 

While Command+Tab works for toggling between tabs in Mac, within my citrix session i can do windows equivalent of Alt+TAB by using OPTION+TAB

[Seb Wills]

I have the same problem with Receiver 12.4 on Mac OS Sierra 12.10.3 on a MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012).

 

I have 'Send Alt character using' set to 'Command (left)-Option'.  I can indeed Alt-Tab in the remote Windows with Command-Option-Tab but that's awkward and it's easy to accidentally do Command-Tab instead.

 

Previously, Option-Tab worked as Alt-Tab, and this is what is described in https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/receiver/mac/12/mac-optimize-improve-user-experience.html , where it gives the explicit example of Option-Tab sending Alt-Tab. I don't know what's changed (OS update? Receiver update?), but it no longer works: Option-Tab now just sends a Tab character.

 

Anyone got a solution?

[Saikiran M]

I got this finally after struggling a lot.

 

Go to regedit and use ctrl+f to find TransparentKeypassthrough, Wherever you find the value blank, change it to Remote. it will definitely work. But do not change if the value is numeric.

[Al Dopa]

This was working OK for me until recently, but the upgrade to 19.10.2.41 (1910) on a Mac has broken it (can't get Cmd + Opt + Tab to work either). I think I was using 19.10.0.18 before (best guess). I have no access to the Registry on the Windows side, but this seems to be a Citrix Workspace problem anyway.

 

[Mark Whitted]

On 4/17/2020 at 4:48 AM, Mark Chitty said:

~tl;dr Use OSX Keyboard Shortcut System Preferences to map option-tab to the Citrix Viewer Alt-Tab menu option.

 

The [Tab] before [Alt]-[Tab] issue was super bugging me too - ruining code I was writing in my Citrix session, etc. Happily I've figured out a reliable workaround, thanks to this Citrix support article. You can use the standard Mac keyboard shortcut customisations to map alt-tab* on your Mac keyboard to send the Alt-Tab key-combo to Citrix Viewer.

 

My CitrixViewer (ver 20.02.0.5) keyboard preferences look like this:

Crucially, in the CitrixViewer application menus, there are options to send certain keys and key combos, including the apocryphal Alt-Tab:

 

 

This means in OS-X's System Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts settings you can map this menu command to a keyboard combo of your choice, the obvious one being ⌥-Tab:

 

The two gotchas I found were:

1. Finding the right application to reference in the Shortcuts application list. The Citrix support article I mentioned above walks you through this.
2. I had to restart the CitrixViewer app to get it to recognise the new keyboard -> menu mappings. Other Mac apps I've done custom keyboard mappings for haven't required a restart, so this made me think my attempts were failing at first, but after restarting the app the shortcuts appeared in the menus and worked! \o/

 

* Alt-tab or option-tab? Everyone seems to call this key (⌥) the Option key, but it's labelled 'alt' on my UK keyboard.

This does not work on an M1 MacBook Air running macOS Ventura 13.0.1 (22A400). I have upgraded to Citrix Workplace Version: 22.11.0.12 (2211), Citrix Viewer Version: 22.11.0.7 (2211) this morning. (That's why I'm in this mess. I had option+ tab working before, but I can't remember how.) The link to the support article is 404. We were able to find it on the Wayback Machine and we found the current location of the Citrix Viewer.app, but the mapping still doesn't work.

Edited December 13, 2022 by Mark Whitted
Additional information.